ce of peace at Elmira when she entered, all glowing
and tremulous with sweet excitement which she strove hard to conceal.

No romances had there been in the lives of the Lawson sisters, and no
repining over the lack of them. They had, in their youth, speculated
as to what husbands the Lord might provide for them, and looked about
for them with furtive alertness. When He provided none, they stopped
speculating, and went on as sharply askant as hens at any smaller
good pecks life might have for them.

The Lawson sisters had always been considered dressy. They owned
their house and garden, also several acres which yielded fair crops
of hay, and some good woodland. They earned considerable money making
fine shirts for a little Jew peddler who let out work in several
neighboring villages, and were enabled to devote the greater part of
that to their wardrobes. They were said to always buy everything of
the best--the finest muslins, the stiffest silks, the richest
ribbons. Each of the sisters possessed several silk gowns, a fine
cashmere shawl, and a satin pelisse; each had two beautiful bonnets,
one for winter and one for summer, and each possessed the value of
her fine apparel to the uttermost, and realized from it a petty,
perhaps, but no less comforting, illumination of spirit. Many of the
lights of happiness of this world are feeble and even ignoble, but
one must see to live, and even a penny dip is exalted if it save one
from the darkness of despair. It is not given to every one to light
his way with a sun, or a full moon, or even a star.

The two Lawson sisters, Imogen and Sarah, greeted Elmira with a
shrill feminine clamor of hospitality, as was their wont, examined
her mother's wedding silk with critical eyes and fingers, and
pronounced it well worth making over. "It's best to buy a good thing
while you're about it, if it does cost a little more," said Imogen.

"Yes, that's true," assented her sister. "Now I shouldn't be a mite
surprised if Ann paid as much as one an' sixpence for this silk when
'twas new; but look at it now--there ain't a break in it. It's as
good as your blue-and-yellow changeable silk, Imogen."

"Dun'no' but 'tis," said Imogen, reflectively.

Sarah went with Elmira to the mantua-maker's, who lived in the next
house, to get the dress cut, while Imogen prepared the dinner. In the
afternoon the two sisters gave Elmira an hour's work on her new gown,
one stitching up the body, the other sewing br